I'm always looking for canoes like that, great way to wile away the winter and make some gas money to get me across Ontario's Highway 11 next year. I love an old canoe that had banged up alum gunnels or rotted ash refitted with wood,
Wood is not for everyone as it requires more maintenance and better storage of the canoe, but how hard is it to take care of some gunnels? Oil or varnish once in a while, easy peasy. Wood gets beautiful with age, vinyl covered gunnels don't look very nice after they get faded, scuffed, scratches showing aluminum, not my cup of tea.
Same goes for leather on a pack imo, geeze, so easy to apply some Snow Seal a couple of times a year and they look better with age....like some folks I know.
Too much coffee this morning, I just said more in this post than I said the whole 6 days at Marshall...haha